Riot Games, the popular gaming company, found themselves in an awkward situation when they mistakenly used the wrong image of an esports player in their promotional material. Instead of featuring a rising North American TFT star, they used a picture of a well-known Dota 2 veteran. The mix-up occurred because both players share the same name, with only a slight difference in capitalization.
The error was quickly noticed by caster and analyst Dan “Frodan” Chou, who pointed it out on social media. Although Riot deleted the tweets containing the mistake, Frodan managed to capture a record of it before they were removed.
The two players involved, TORONTOTOKYO and torontotokyo, couldn’t be more different. TORONTOTOKYO is a Russian Dota 2 professional who has been in the scene since 2015 and even won The International in 2021 as part of Team Spirit. On the other hand, torontotokyo is an up-and-coming American talent in TFT, who joined competitive play in 2022 and achieved their best result at the NA Last Chance Qualifier, securing second place and qualifying for the Runeterra Reforged Championship.
It’s easy to see how the mix-up occurred. When searching for images of the TFT player, someone at Riot likely couldn’t find any other than the Dota 2 player who shares the same name. While the name itself is relatively unique, it’s still amusing that this small overlap led to such a mistake from the event organizers.
Now that the error has been rectified, it’s safe to assume that the people at Riot overseeing the Runeterra Reforged Championship will be more aware of both TORONTOTOKYO, the Dota 2 player, and torontotokyo, the rising star in TFT. They will likely ensure they have the correct image of torontotokyo for future broadcasts, especially if they reach the same level of success as their namesake in NA’s defense of their previous Championship title.
Dot Esports attempted to contact torontotokyo, the TFT player, for further context on why they chose their name but has not received a response at the time of writing.
Source: DOTESPORTS
